How to Hike Among the Redwoods at Big Basin Redwoods State Park

It is a walk of life, death and disaster. However, it's also a walk in the park.

The route in question is the Redwood Loop Trail, part of Big Basin Redwoods State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains. One lap around the 0.63-mile loop and you'll see, amid the fading ravages of fire, what a big difference four years can make in the natural world.

The state park, the oldest in California, is also the largest stand of ancient coast redwoods south of San Francisco. It was 97% burned in 2020, when the CZU Lightning Complex fire broke out in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Tens of thousands of trees were incinerated, most of the park remains closed and its infrastructure (including 150 campsites) destroyed.

However, after four years of regrowth, which included drought conditions, followed by atmospheric river storms in 2023, visitors can walk among countless growing stems, many of which reach 10 to 20 feet in height.

“You'll see green shoots coming out of these black trunks all over the park,” said Will Fourt, senior parks and recreation specialist for the Santa Cruz district of the state parks system. Despite initial fears, most of the park's redwoods survived, Fourt said, noting that they can resprout not only from their base and branches but also from their trunks, something most conifers cannot do.

By one estimate, only 3% of the park's Douglas firs remain.

Among the redwoods, “the new growth that is coming up from the roots is just amazing. Everything was gray and black here for seven months after the fire,” said Debbie Martwick, senior visitor services assistant. “The resilience of nature is so uplifting and inspiring.”

The park has gradually reopened since July 2022, and weekends are busy enough that rangers urge visitors to make parking reservations at least a day in advance (details below). But on the weekday I visited, I only saw a handful of hikers.

Where to walk in the park

Like most, I entered the main day-use area of ​​the park via state routes 9 and 236 near Boulder Creek.

The Redwood Loop Trail is a flat route that includes some of the largest and oldest trees in the park. Small shoots are seen slowly emerging from fallen trunks, head-high green shoots dwarfing the charred remains, and towering old trees whose branches are greening again, despite the charred, jet-black bark beneath. If you stay alert, you'll also see a curly redwood tree along the edge of the trail. Unlike the rest, the bark of this tree has a wavy texture that makes it stand out like a hallucinatory delinquent among the honor students: a moment of hallucination along a journey of inspiration.

This is a coast redwood tree in Big Basin Redwoods State Park with a rare anomaly that has left its bark looking wavy or curly. This is unrelated to the fire that burned 97% of the park in 2020. The park has greened up a lot in the four years since then.

Hikers looking for a longer route, Fourt said, can take a four-mile scenic loop that includes parts of the Skyline-to-Sea Trail, Meteor Trail and Middle Ridge Road, returning via the Dool Trail. Remember the sunscreen, Fourt added, because the park isn't as shaded as it used to be.

How Big Basin became the first state park

Big Basin Redwoods State Park was created in 1902, when dozens of logging companies competed to cut down as many tall trees as they could in the region. Local activists purchased six square miles of redwood forest and then lobbied state officials for new measures to protect the area from logging. Today, that forest is still dominated by the same trees, some of them more than 300 feet tall and 1,000 years old.

But on August 16, 2020, lightning sparked the CZU Complex fire, blackening 86,500 acres in and around the park (covering 18,000 acres). The flames killed one person. Thirty-seven days passed before firefighters could contain the fire.

Today, of the park's 85 miles of hiking trails, Fourt said, about 6.5 miles are open, and several more are expected to reopen this winter. Of Big Basin's 30 miles of fire roads (open to hikers, bikers and equestrians), about 25 miles are open. However, it may be years before hikers can hike the popular Berry Creek Falls Trail and Sequoia Trail again.

In the park, the ravages of the fire are still there, but they are disappearing.

(Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times)

At the site of the park's old headquarters building (built log cabin style by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1936), cement steps now lead nowhere. Their camps are not expected to reopen for several years. A new facilities plan is planned for 2025.

Before the fire, Martwick said, the park attracted 1 million visitors a year, often filling hundreds of parking spaces, many of them along fire roads that are now closed. Now the park receives about a tenth of the number of visitors (between 3,000 and 9,000 per month) and only has about 70 parking spaces at its main entrance.

There are chemical toilets, but there is no drinking water, electricity, cell phone reception or WiFi. In October, park officials joined the Save the Redwoods League to release a new forest management strategy plan that calls for thinning the park's forests in the coming years by increasing the number of prescribed burns (which park managers park have been doing for decades).

Seeing the park today “can be dramatic for people who remember the park as it was,” Fourt acknowledged. “But there's still a lot of beauty there.”

For now, a visit to Big Basin makes sense as part of a trip to the Santa Cruz area, but not as a focal point. Fortunately, there are plenty of other things to do nearby, including visiting the city and coast of Santa Cruz, as well as several state parks and the mountain communities of Scotts Valley, Felton, Ben Lomond, Brookdale, and Boulder Creek.

Big Basin Redwoods State Park, which mostly burned in 2020, has greened up a lot in the four years since.

(Chris Reynolds)

Visitors can also visit Rancho del Oso, the coastal portion of the park located off Highway 1 in Davenport, about 17 miles north of Santa Cruz. Although Rancho del Oso currently features only three short sections of trail (less than a mile each), the area includes Waddell State Beach (one of the best windsurfing spots in North America), a welcome center (rebuilt and reopened in 2023). , a nature and history center and six campsites.

if you go

Big Basin Redwoods State Park is open from 8:30 a.m. to sunset daily. Parking is $10 without a reservation, $8 with one. Weekend visitors are urged to reserve parking at least a day in advance. On summer weekends, there is bus service from Scotts Valley's Cavallaro Transit Center, about 45 minutes from the park, and officials plan additional summer parking (with shuttle buses) at Saddle Mountain, about 10 minutes from the main day-use entrance to the park. Check the park's website for more details before visiting.

There are no fees or reservation requirements for visitors to Rancho del Oso.

Nearby state parks include Año Nuevo State Park, Butano State Park (where many areas are still closed), Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, Natural Bridges State Beach, and Wilder Ranch State Park.

where to eat

In Ben Lomond, Aroma restaurant has indoor and outdoor seating, with a couple of open fires in the rustic but elegant dining room.

In Scotts Valley, Laughing Monk Brewery has plenty of bar food, including bourbon burgers and sweet potato fries. Brunch on weekends.

where to stay

In Santa Cruz, the Sea & Sand Inn sits on a cliff above the ocean, next to the more expensive Dream Inn. Rates typically start around $150 on weekdays and $280 on weekends.

In Santa Cruz, Mission Inn & Suites is an affordable option on Mission Avenue, about two miles from the UC Santa Cruz campus. Weekday rates often drop below $100.